Not So Shiny
by Citrine Dream
Summary: Mike doesn't want to make the long journey all the way across the lot to the school, so he decides to squeeze his car in a tight parking space. A whole lot of good that did him. Now he must deal with the consequences of his choice.


Mike POV

"Why did we even have to join in this stupid carpool anyway?" Tyler grumbled as I drove to the school. The day was cloudy and rainy but for some reason I still hoped that Cullen wouldn't be at school today. I just know I still have a chance to win over Bella's heart. I'd seen her and the freak arguing a lot ever since he got back from wherever it was he went. Maybe it was about something so serious that they would break up for good this time. When they did, I would be there to make Bella feel better.

I smiled to myself. My plan was flawless…That is, when it all actually happens.

I almost forgot about Tyler's question, but when it came to mind, I rolled my eyes. "My mom thinks we should be saving energy for the Earth and all that stuff. I'm only doing this so I don't get my job put on hold." I grumbled. I didn't understand why mom cared so much about this now. Tyler's right. This is stupid.

Eric perked up from the back seat. "Man, who cares if it's stupid. If Mike's mom is going to make him do this then we have to join in 'cause we're his best friends, right Mike?" I could _hear _the annoying smile that was on his lips. It ticked Tyler off that Eric was so happy all the time.

"Shut up!" He glared at Eric in the back who didn't reply.

Then the school came into to view and Bella filled my mind again. I would have to get some action going sooner or later.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I realized that most of the spots closer to the school were filled. In In fact, there was only one spot I could see was definitely not one I wanted to try to get into. It was small and a tight squeeze for my wide car. On the other hand I didn't want to walk all that way up to the school from the back either.

I decided to take the spot in the front, feeling confident that I could fit my car there. I vaguely wondered why everyone had decided to fill up all the spots in the front today.

I had just started to make a tight turn into the spot when I heard Eric gasp. My foot slammed on the brake in alarm, my car already crookedly stuck between the two cars that surrounded it, I was dangerously close to skimming the side of a silver car in front of me.

Five seconds went by before I turned around and glared at Eric for freaking me out. "What?"

Eric was staring at the car in front mine, his eyes were wide with terror, as if he just saw someone jump in front of a train. Tyler looked in the direction that Eric stared and his eyes bulged, too.

"What's wrong with you?" I yelled at the two of them. Were they going crazy?

Tyler didn't look away from the car as he spoke. "Dude, if you hit that I swear I'll kill you and jump out of this car." his voice was raw but calm at the same time.

I growled at them and looked at the car. In front of me was that Stupid Shiny Volvo. Cullen's Stupid Shiny Volvo. It was right in front of my bumper and I was about to hit it. If I even moved my car, they were going to collide. Then Cullen would find out and he would kill me after a random series of very painful beatings.

By now I'm sure my face looked worse than theirs as my mind flooded with all of the possible ways I could die because of this. _No! _I told myself. _I need to figure out how to get out of this. Oh God! I'm gonna die! _My mind screamed. _Stop that! _I argued with myself.

"Dude! Mike, man! Calm down!" Tyler was shaking me. I realized I was breathing hard, my lungs inflating and deflating painfully in my chest.

I choked on air and gasped loudly, trying to get a hold of myself. I shook my head a few times to clear it. I was _not_ going to run into that car. I won't.

After a few attempts of breathing again I finally was at least calm enough to talk. My hand shook as I put it on the gearshift, preparing to switch to reverse. I took a few deep breaths and turned to the guys, who were staring at me, eyes wide.

"Okay," I said loudly. "I'm just gonna back out and find a different spot, okay?" the nodded quickly. "Nothing's gonna happen. Everything's gonna be fine. I won't touch it and we'll drive safely away, okay?" They nodded again.

_Okay_, I though, _I can do this._

I placed both of my sweaty hands on the steering wheel and focused on doing this slowly. I carefully put my foot on the petal and made one last attempt to calm myself.

I pushed every so slightly on the gas petal. _Slowly, Slowly. _As I pushed harder on the petal just in the smallest movement I began to grow more confident.

Suddenly the car lurched forward with a jerk. There was the shrill sound of metal smashing against metal, groaning as it bent and twisted. The metal of the silver car was no longer shiny as it popped out of place and molded around my car's hood, leaving a huge dent in the drivers side of the car that wouldn't go unnoticed by anyone.

My heart probably stopped. I couldn't hear anything over Eric's sharp shriek of terror and Tyler's yelling at me about forgetting to put the car in reverse. The inside of my car was the full of chaos as Tyler started to jump into the backseat so he could get out of the car.

I didn't dare worry about the outside of _my_ car. That didn't matter now. The only thing that mattered was me finding a place to go and hide so I would get smashed to pieces.

Neither Tyler nor Eric managed to get out of the car because we were trapped between the Volvo and the car beside it. _God Dang it! Why had I been so stupid? A little walk to the school would've been a hell of a lot better than this! At least walking wouldn't kill me! I was sure I put the car in reverse!_

Tyler was furious for being involved in this. "Mike! Why didn't you just park somewhere else? We're going to die! What's wrong with you? Did you even think to put the car in reverse before you tried to get away, huh?" He roared. My ears were ringing from the sound of it and I covered my ears. Eric was still screaming…

"SHUT UP!" I shouted, panting hard. I couldn't take this anymore. "Shut up! Just shut up! This is so not only my fault! If you guys hadn't of freaked me out I would've never been scared of hitting that thing and I would've been able to park without all of this!" I waved my hands in the air.

The two glared at me but were silent. I took a minute to figure this out. _I'll just back out and everything will be find 'cause Cullen won't know that I did it 'cause I'll be across the lot and he won't be able to suspect me. Yes! It's perfect, and we'll cover up the dent and everything will be perfectly fine…_

"Okay," I said for the fourth time. "I'll just back out and park all the way over there," I pointed far off. "We'll be over there and Cullen won't know we did it."

I didn't wait for them to answer I as, for sure, put the car in reverse and pressed the gas petal. The metal of the two cars screeched loudly as my tires desperately tried to pull my car away from the other. My bumper was digging into the Volvo and I was have a heart attack the whole time.

Finally my car was freed from the mold the crumpled Volvo had on it and I pulled away from it as quickly as possible, driving as far across the lot as I could get away from it.

When I was parked and the car was off, I leaned back against my seat and let out an exasperated sigh. The others were silent in the backseat, I could hear their quiet breathing and that's it .

"Guys," I said unwillingly. "Let's go check out the damage." My voice was calm but it was the exact opposite of what was going on in my head.

We reluctantly opened the doors and got out, not bothering to look at my car as we headed back to the site of the tragedy. I was scared as hell.

When we reached the Volvo this time I was sure my heart stopped. The red paint front my car was smudged all over the back door on the driver's side of the tattered Volvo. I gulped air and tried to regain my thoughts. _Cullen would know it was me now. Well, I'm not going down alone._

A plan slowly formed in my head. We were already and hour late for school and no one was around. What's one day of trying to clean up a mess?

I turned to Eric, who looked petrified. "You're the one who said we stick together as best friends so, guess what? You're gonna help me out of this, got it?" He nodded and Tyler scoffed.

"Man, we all have to help you out of this. Cullen _knows _we carpool together. He's gonna hunt for us all when he finds out if we don't do something." He was right and I was thankful I wasn't in this alone.

"Eric," I said. "Go find some paint in the art room that will match the car. We'll try to bump out the dent somehow." He nodded and ran off.

I turned back to the car and winced visibly. Tyler examined it closely. "You should be the happiest man alive right now 'cause you're lucky Edward didn't have the alarm on or you would be dead." I gasped in shock and thanked the lord for this fortunate thing.

I couldn't think of anything else in my panic, knew it was stupid but what other choice did I have.

"Maybe we can plunge the dent out…" I suggested hesitantly. Tyler looked at as if there was a spider on my head. "What? Do you have a better idea?" I accused defensively, crossing my arms over my chest.

He thought for a moment, sighed and shook his head. "I'll go find a plunger." He stated dully, walking in the direction of the closest known janitor's closet. He was back a minute later with a green plunger. I shuddered at the thought of that touching my car.

He pushed it in my direction and my eyes popped out of my head. "No. No way, I am not going to be the one to do it. No." I wasn't gonna chance inflicting more damage than I already had.

He shoved it into my hands and crossed his arms. "You're the one who ran into it, you get to get the huge dent out." I glowered at him and hesitantly walked over put the plunger in the middle of the dent.

I put my weight against it, feeling it suck onto the metal and pulled it back. There was a popping sound and I pulled the plunger away, shocked that it actually worked. Barely. _Ugh, this is stupid and gross. _

"You're not doing it right. Give it!" Tyler yanked the green thing out of my hands and moved me out of the way.

I was happy to have it out of my hands until I saw Tyler plant his foot on the side of the car. I panicked. "What are doing? That's gonna leave a mark!" I yelled, knocking his foot off the door.

He slipped and the plunger flew in the air, banging again the glass window and cracking it. He fell on top of me, knocking the air out of me and I thought to myself, _today is my death sentence._

I growled and push him off of me, throwing the useless plunger across the pavement. The car did indeed now how a shoe print on it and a broken window.

I groaned in frustration and kicked the tire. I'd lost all hope until I saw Eric making his way over to us with four shades of silver paint cans shuffled in his arms. At least I could hide the fact that all of this was my fault.

He set the cans beside the car and grinned. "These haven't been opened yet so we have plenty to hide the paint from your car, Mike."

I nodded and went to open the first can. The lid was tightly sealed on and it was giving me trouble.

"Here," Eric said, holding up a big paint brush and a screw driver. I nodded and took the screw driver from him.

Just as I was beginning to get the lid off when Eric shouted, "You guys cracked the window, too!"

It startled me and I jumped, the screwdriver scraping the side of the car near the wheel, leaving a long scratch in the metal. I glared at Eric and he smiled, apologizing.

I ripped the lid off the dark grey paint watched as several droplets flew off and onto the car. My eye twitched repeatedly.

It took till the last can of paint to find a color that would even remotely be similar to that of which the car was painted with. Hundreds of little droplets from the other colors remained on the wheel and bumper after I was finished covering up the red paint form my car. When I could no longer see red I gave up trying to save the rest of the car and stood back to review my work.

It was horrible. The dent was huge, the window was cracked, there was a shoe print on the door, the paint was definitely noticeable and the wheel was several different shades of grey.

I prayed to God that Edward wouldn't figure out it was me.

We hid the paint in my trunk and signed in late for school, just around lunch time.

When I walked into the cafeteria, I tried to stay as calm as possible. I didn't need anyone knowing I was stressed, then they would ask what about. However, I was nauseous so I didn't buy any food.

"Hey, Mike. Where were you this morning? I was like totally waiting to tell you what happened to me the other day at the mall…" Jessica babbled as I took a seat next to her. I couldn't pay attention to anything she said because I was so focused on staying calm. My head was a jumbled mess.

_He's not gonna find out. He won't know. Shut it, of course he's gonna find out. He notices everything. He doesn't have a reason not to notice this. He's gonna kill me. Oh God, please save me!_

I was going to lose it if I didn't make sure he wasn't looking at me strange. Behind me I could feel a glare burning holes into the back of my head.

Slowly, I turned and looked at the Cullen table. Dark, black eyes stared back at me. He was looking right at me. _He knows! No he can't know, he can't. _His posture was stiff as he glowered at me suspiciously, his arm was around Bella's shoulders . She was staring at me, too…

Terrified, I turned back around and swallowed loudly.

"Mike!" Jessica pulled me out of my thoughts. "Are you even listening to me?" She was angry but I couldn't worry about that now.

"I think I'm gonna be sick…" I moaned and got up, rushing to the bathroom in the hall. I locked myself in a stall and breathed hard. I wasn't going to get sick but, man, it felt like it.

The shrill ring of the bell made me jump three feet in the air when it was time to go to class.

I banged my fist against the stall door. I have my next class with Cullen. My mind yelled, sending me into nausea again.

I arrived at Biology last, just before class started. I kept my eyes on the floor as I walked past the table that seemed to scorch in hot flames of fury.

I couldn't even pay attention to the teacher, I was so scared.

_Okay, it's okay. Just don't think about it. Don't' think at all. Don't think about him. Don't think about anything. _I told myself soothingly.

I was going to leave school early. I had to. I didn't not was to know what Cullen would do once he saw his precious Volvo.

When the next class started, I realized it was one I had with Bella. I almost sighed in relief. She could take my mind off things.

When I walked into the gym I immediately spotted her on the bleachers by the locker rooms. I felt my dread disappear.

"Hey, Bella." I greeted he, grinning.

She looked surprised to see me. "Oh, hi, Mike." She stared at me for a moment before looking away to look at Coach Clapp.

"Okay, we're not dressing out today because the Spanish class is coming in for their sub day. It's a free day of dodge ball today. That's it."

Dodge ball was fun. I could beat up some guys and not have to worry have about anything all period.

As we lined up in teams on different sides of the gym, I spotted Bella on the opposite team, I was confident I could win this. That is until I saw Cullen take a stance right next to her. _He's in the Spanish glass…_ I felt all of the blood drain out of my face as I stared at him. _I'm gonna die!_

His eyes flashed to mine the moment the thought filled my head and the gaze he held told me he was preying upon me. I wanted to scream.

The soft colorful balls were thrown into the middle of the gym and then Coach Clapp yelled for us to begin.

I immediately took of in the direction of the Coach to tell him that I didn't feel well. A horrified shriek left me and I fell to the floor when a ball moving at least fifty miles an hour went right past my head and bounced off the wall. I knew who'd thrown it but I wasn't going to look.

I scrambled off the floor and made it safely to the side lines before another ball could come anywhere near my head.

After telling the Coach about my state, he sent me to the nurse. I was beyond ecstatic to be out of there. I wasn't really going to the nurse, though. I wanted to leave before Cullen got his hands around my neck.

As I passed the Volvo I shuddered and continued to my car, all the way across the lot. I didn't bother to wait for Eric and Tyler as I got in and drove home. They didn't want anything to do with this anyway.

Upon arriving to my house, I locked my car safely in the garage and curled up in my bed, Terrified of what was going to happen tomorrow.


End file.
